


Friends in Findings

by h_nb



Series: Keaton [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: (non descriptive), Found, Hospital Setting, Impaled, Mild Gore, Oxygen mask, Surgery, Unconscious, Whump, Whumptober 2020, ambulance, injured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:28:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26993671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_nb/pseuds/h_nb
Summary: Whumptober Day 13: Oxygen Mask
Relationships: Keaton Angara (OC) & Jae Rivers (OC)
Series: Keaton [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956004
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Friends in Findings

_"Holy crap, I'm calling an ambulance, what the heck happened to you-- oh god, okay."_

Everything was a fuzzy whiteness, and even still Keaton could barely keep his eyes open. He was vaguely aware of movement, of being moved, something moving him. Colors faded in and out of his vision, red, black, brown, white again. 

_"Oh, shit, there's- in your chest- hey! Can you hear me? Holy shit, what do I- crap, okay, come on, come on... hi, yeah, I need- here, I'm-- there's someone really injured here, I don't know what- happened to him, he's- really messed up."_

Blurry and spinning, Keaton tried to sit up, he thought, but he couldn't move, or didn't have the strength to. indiscernible voices bled into his ears and became a fuzzy wash of sound, not loud enough to break through the heartbeat in his ears. Keaton felt his body jerk, vaguely aware through some panicked survival mechanism that he was trying to breath and he was failing to. _  
_

_"Hey, man, you should probably try and stay awake, right? Oh, god, please don't die. Here, uh, I guess I'll keep talking. I'm..."  
_

Then there was air, a sudden burst of it down his throat, some restricting mass over his face forcing air through his body. Keaton knew that he tried to shake it off, but it was too firmly tightened and Keaton could do nothing but feel his lungs expanding, sending a whole new spike of pain through his body. He might have screamed. He might have blacked out.

_He remembered eyes barely open, cracked just enough to see the sun rising and someone running toward him. Keaton couldn't move, every part of him felt like it had been battered to a formless pulp, and something in his chest shifted every time he tried to breathe, painful in an indescribable way every time he opened his dry, bruised lips._

_Keaton tried to turn his head away from the figure running toward him, unsure of who it was, but it hurt too much and Keaton wasn't in control of his body enough to do so. So he stared with unfocused eyes at the person crouching down next to them, barely aware of wavy_ _sandy blonde hair and wide eyes somewhere between green and brown. The stranger's lips moved, but Keaton couldn't take in any sound. He couldn't distinguish much at all after a moment, as his vision began to blur into a mess of colors and he began to wonder if it would be easier to let his eyes stay shut._

Keaton opened his eyes to stark whiteness and the sound of something on the television playing at a low volume. It was too bright, so he kept his eyes mostly closed while he figured out where he was and what had happened to him.

He was at a hospital. He vaguely remembered that part, flashing lights and the piercing noise of sirens, that mask over his face that kept him breathing as they moved him somewhere else. The reminder of it made his chest twinge with pain as Keaton tried to take a breath, and so Keaton cracked open one eye and peered downward. A hospital gown covered his chest, but Keaton could nonetheless feel the tight stretch of bandages around his middle. There were more bandages Keaton could feel around his body -- around his head, his thigh, his hand, his cheek. Turning his aching neck to the left, Keaton slowly took in the monitors next to him, and the tubes that fed into his arm. 

He turned his head back to the right, but he was alone in the room and the door and blinds were both shut. Keaton exhaled, face pulling into a wince as he did so, and began wracking his medication-fogged brain for what had happened and what to do about it.

Then the door open, and that stranger who had found Keaton before entered. Now that he could see her with clearer eyes, Keaton could see that he was tall, with wild, wavy blonde hair that stopped just under her chin, and there was some stubble on her jaw. Keaton stared with eyes slowly growing wider as he remembered more and more, and the stranger stopped short, eyebrows raising in surprise and a smile growing onto their face. "Oh, hey, you're awake!"

"H-hey," Keaton struggled to say, voice cracking from dryness and pain. "It's- y-you, from- befor'."

"Yeah, um, where is the... the, uh, nurse said to give you this when you woke up." The stranger picked up a plastic cup that had a plastic spoon in it, and sat down at a chair neat Keaton's bed. "Supposed to keep your throat moist, I think. I definitely was listening when the nurse explained it, uh." 

Keaton watched the spoon that held half-melted ice chips in it, and looked at the stranger in confusion. "Who- ghh, are you? Kinda rem'ber but, 's fuzzy..."

"Oh, sorry, guess I just look like some stranger, I guess I am, but... I don't know, I figured, like, I called the ambulance, I should at least stick around to make sure you were okay. I'm Jae Rivers, by the way. With an 'e'."

"I'm Ke-Keaton Angara," he rasped, eyes flicking to the ice, which was looking really enticing at the moment.

Jae followed his eyes and blinked, nodding, slowly raising the spoon to his lips. "Nice to meet you, I guess, even if it's under these... really bad circumstances, honestly. I don't... I mean, I don't envy whatever happened to you that you ended up like that."

"What-" the ice was helpful, and it was slightly less painful for Keaton to speak now. "What... did I end up like? I don't... I only remember kind of what happened before, but, it was, unh, a lot of... it was a lot." 

"I mean, I really don't know, I only- I was just taking a run, and I saw you out there, on that road... You were, I mean, there was like some kind of pole or, in your chest-- I never saw what it was since you went into surgery, but... it was real fucked up dude, that on top of, y'know, everything else."

"Yeah..." Keaton looked out at the busy hospital, and then back at Jae. "So why did... why'd you stay? Could've definitely, uh, left, I wouldn't... no one would've blamed you, I sure wouldn't have."

Jae shrugged. "Just didn't feel right, leaving you by yourself, I mean, hospital records still have no clue who you are, technically, so they couldn't really... call anyone.

"They... oh, my wallet's still in my... car, huh." Keaton inhaled sharply on accident, wincing when it caused the pain in his chest to increase again, leaning forward as if that would help.

"Woah!" A gentle hand on his shoulder, and Jae was easing him back against the firm pillows of the hospital bed, a concerned look in her eyes as Keaton continued to struggle for air. "Do I need to get the nurse, do you need-"

"Nnh, no, 'm fine, sorry, just- god. This sucks. I've never- needed a hospital before for this, or I guess, haven't gone to one."

"What- this has happened to you before?" Jae's eyebrows knit together, mouth wide in shock.

Keaton frowned, nodding slowly. "Unfortunately, I've got uh... a habit or something of, exploring the wrong places, I guess."

"Well... maybe stop exploring places, then?" 

"It doesn't-" Keaton groaned, eyes narrowing slightly. "I can't just stop, it's-- when I don't run into uh- messed up people who like to hit me with crowbars, it's-- it's my favorite thing, my passion, I guess, I dunno."

"Alright, it's... I dunno, kind of weird, but... I won't judge, I guess." Jae smiled, eyebrows still furrowed together in concern.

Keaton's lips twitched into a smile. "You _just_ said it was weird, that's definitely judging. 'sides, if you saw the pictures I take of the cool places I find, you'd- think different."

"Well- alright, fair enough, show me then."

Keaton nodded slowly, before realizing that he didn't have his camera on him. "When I'm- out of here and can get back to my- my other photos, I'll... show you." 

Before Jae could respond, a nurse entered, and Jae stood to move out of his way. She kept looking at Keaton though, and winked as she said, "Deal. I'm gonna go buy overpriced hospital snacks, I'll be back, okay?"

Keaton turned his head to watch Jae leave, nodding silently, wondering how he had gained a friend from this stranger who found him, but not really minding in the slightest.


End file.
